Friday, 23 November 2012

A little illustration I created today to publicise an interactive Family Event at the John Gray Centre. The plan is to create a great paper installation illustrating the story of William Borthwick who ran off with all the money from the East Lothian Bank in 1822!

Friday, 9 November 2012

Here is a peak at some of the recent cartoons I have created inspired by the Haddington Criminal Register from the 1890s. There is a mix of humour and poignancy in the later ones. You can see the complete collection unfolding on the John Gray Centre website.

No. 5 ‘Theft of Slippers’

Margaret Crossweller, a 24-year-old vagrant from Glasgow, was arrested on 27 May 1897 for theft of a pair of slippers. The judge sentenced her to 10 days in jail for the crime.

No. 8 ‘Playing football on shed’

On 14 December 1896, the schoolboy Joseph King was arrested for the second time that year, now aged 10. He was admonished for causing a nuisance by playing football against a shed.

No. 11 ‘Drunk and Incapable Housewife’

Mrs Jane Orr, aged 41 from Haddington, was recently arrested for being drunk and incapable. She was admonished for the crime and given a strong warning.

No. 12 ‘Malicious Mischief at the Distillery’

Schoolboy Frederick Faunt was arrested in Haddington for getting up to malicious mischief at the distillery. The 9-year-old boy was reprimanded on report for the chaos caused.

Last week as I sat in the Search Room at
the John Gray Centre I reached a realisation about this project. The epiphany
was brought about when I opened a wallet containing correspondence relating to
the ‘Haddington Inspector of the Poor, 1837 – 1854’. It was not the subject of
these letters that proved so key, although this in itself is fascinating and I
made a note to return and examine it further, rather it was the beautiful
visual quality of the handwritten envelopes and letters, on backgrounds of pale
muted browns, greys and blues, with weathered and dog-eared corners.

I realised that the contents of this wallet
represented what I had expected to find when I began work with an ‘archive’: it
is a document of correspondence which details a social history, but also a
historical record of the handwritten document, something so rare in our society
of emails, text messages and mobile phones. A sample of handwriting reflects
the identity of a person; the ebbs and flows of the line work describe the
author and create their permanent imprint on a page. A lost art perhaps, or a
momentary preoccupation with a more relevant technology, there is something
fascinating about this kind of artifact.

This set of correspondence is by no means
the only example of this in the archive; other intriguing examples include the
Autograph book and some personal record books and diaries. As a visual artist I
wanted to make use of these colours, marks and textures within the drawings I
make of the county, layering up East Lothian’s physical history with
illustrations of life in the county.

Fish & Chips in Cockenzie

This month I have also been reading
‘Olivia’s Story’ by Mary Contini, which I found in the Local History Collection
at the John Gray Centre. This book documents the story and history of the
Crolla family as they travelled from southern Italy to make their home in
Scotland. The book is a fascinating record of the life of Italians emigrating
and creating a life here, with particular focus on the Edinburgh shops they ran.

I was particularly excited to reach a
passage about the Di Ciacca family who took over and ran a business in Cockenzie
selling fish and chips and ice cream. The Italians were met with an initial
wariness from Scottish families, however this business became the heart of the
fishing community there in the 1930s, as not only a supplier, and often source
of credit when needed, to the local families, but also as a meeting place after
a day of fishing. The family also took advantage of thriving tourist industry
in East Lothian at the time, cycling ice cream barrels down to local swimming
pool and promenades to sell their wares.

The archive is full of stories of this
kind, such as the strawberry pickers in Ormiston who had to pick and deliver
their strawberries to Edinburgh on the first train of the day, or the Fisherrow
wives I described last month. My challenge now is to do these memories justice
in the work I create before the end of the project.

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Welcome

The inspirations and news from Lucy Roscoe, an Illustrator based in Edinburgh.

After graduating in Illustration from Edinburgh College of Art in 2008, and then again after finishing a Masters in 2010, she now works for various clients illustrating books, cards and all kinds of interesting projects, as well as publishing artist's books under the imprint The Book Tree Press.

Any queries please email lucy@thebooktreepress.co.uk

About Me

I am the illustrator behind The Book Tree Press, a small artist's press based in Edinburgh which publishes artist's books and papery products.
I love folding, binding, printmaking and all things papery.